Environmental Regulation

Sustainability report

Following consultation document 351/2019, on 31 October 2019 ARERA approved Resolution 443/19 containing the first integrated waste management service tariff method 2018-2021.
With reference to the WTR – Waste Tariff Method, the new rules define TARI fees to be applied to users in 2020-2021, the criteria for the costs recognised in the current two-year period 2018-2019 and the reporting obligations.
As in other sectors subject to regulation, the new waste tariff method refers to ex-post data referring to certain accounting sources (financial statements) for the year Y-2 and applied to year Y (including indications of adjustments that permeate the entire algebraic structure of the method) and no longer to forecast data.

The new ARERA method applies a hybrid approach, borrowed from other service regulations like electricity and gas, with a different treatment of capital costs and operating costs. Namely:

  • Capital costs recognised according to a scheme like rate of return; 
  • Operating costs with the application of incentive regulation schemes and the definition of efficiency targets on a multi-annual basis.

Furthermore, as already anticipated in the consultations, the method calls for tariff limits to revenue growth in addition to the introduction of four different schemes that can be adopted by local authorities and operators with respect to the objectives of improving service. More specifically, the method regulates the phases of the integrated waste service as identified: street sweeping and washing, collection and transport, treatment and recovery, treatment and disposal of municipal waste, tariff management and user relations.

With regard to the treatment and recovery and treatment and disposal phases, ARERA specifically established that the criteria for determining the fees to be applied to treatment and disposal plants will be evaluated in subsequent measures, indicating that pending such assessment (to be performed on the basis of the criteria referred to in art. 1, paragraph 527, letter g) of Italian Law no. 205/17) for the 2020 TARI the fees for such activities will be applied as follows: a) in the presence of administered tariffs, the tariff approved and/or justified by the competent territorial authority; and b) in all other cases, the tariff charged by the operator of the plant determined as a result of negotiations.

In this first definition of the tariff method, ARERA maintained the algebraic structure of the method established by Italian Presidential Decree 158/1999, including tariff factors corresponding to additional components for the determination of the fees, some of which are as follows: 

  • Limit to the overall growth of tariff revenues, with the introduction of a limit factor for annual variation that also takes into account efficiency gains and productivity recovery; 
  • an asymmetric approach that takes into account in the measurement and in the calculations of the single cost components: 1. service improvement objectives established at a local level and 2. the possible extension of the operational perimeter; these parameters determine the positioning of the individual operation within a tariff matrix, as follows; 
  • Sharing factor in relation to revenues from the sale of material and energy from waste (between 0.3 and 0.6), and relative to CONAI revenues (between 0.1 and 0.4); 
  • Introduction of an adjustment component for both variable and fixed costs, defined as the difference between the revenues relating to the variable and/or fixed cost components for the year Y-2 — as redefined by the Authority — compared to the tariff revenues calculated for the year Y-2. In the recognition of 2018-2019 efficient costs, this component is modulated through a coefficient of gradation and provides for the payment for the recovery of any deviations through a number of instalments, up to 4; 
  • introduction of two different rates of return on net invested capital (WACC) for the service of the integrated waste cycle and a differentiated rate of return for the enhancement of current assets. Regarding the WACC of the integrated waste cycle for the period 2020-2021, it is defined as 6.3%. To this value is added a 1% increase to cover the costs arising from the time lag between the year of recognition of investments (Y-2) and the year of tariff recognition (Y), known as the time lag.

In order to take account of the different initial territorial conditions, as previously with the water sector, the Regulator has introduced a methodology that defines the criteria for the quantification of tariffs within an asymmetrical regulation, where there are four different types of tariff schemes under which each competent entity can identify the most effective solution depending on its objectives of quality improvement and management development currently applicable to operators in the first part of the integrated waste service chain, in particular to the phases of sweeping and washing roads and collection and transport.
The EFP (Economic and Financial Plan) remains the tool of reference for the development of the integrated cycle and for the calculation of TARI tariffs and is prepared by the “integrated waste system operator”, where it is also the Municipality, while “the operators who manage parts of the supply chain make their data available to those who prepare the EFP for the correct elaboration of the entire Plan”.
With regard to the Integrated Text TITR — 444/2019/R/rif — Provisions on transparency in the management of urban and similar waste, it is specified that this text defines the provisions on transparency of the management of urban and similar waste for the regulatory period 1 April 2020-31 December 2023. The scope of the intervention includes the minimum information to be made available by the integrated cycle manager through websites, the minimum information to be included in collection documents (payment notice or bill) and individual communications to users concerning significant changes in operations.
With Resolution 138/21, ARERA started the procedure for updating the MTR (the “MTR-2”), which will be effective from 2022 and in which also establishes the methodology for defining the so-called “gate tariffs”, which will have a direct impact on the operation of some of the Company’s plants.
With Determination 01/DRIF/2021, the Authority began collecting data on treatment plants in the unseparated waste chain (D10 and R1 incinerators, mechanical/mechanical-biological treatment, and landfills). The Company duly responded within the required deadline.
Consultation Document 196/21 on gate tariffs was also published, offering clarification on the regulatory scope envisaged by the Authority: ARERA is therefore currently inclined towards including all the plants that manage urban waste, with the exception of those that are “connected with recycling chains, focused on materials recovery, managed by chain consortia (funded by contributions from member companies) or by other entities, and with whom municipalities may sign specific agreements to cover the charges incurred for separate waste collection”.
Lastly, with Resolution 363/2021/R/RIF, the Authority approved the method for determining tariff revenues for delivery of the integrated urban waste management service, or the individual services that constitute it (such as the recovery/disposal service, carried out directly by the Company), applicable to the years 2022-2025. In this context, the Waste Tariff Method for the second regulatory period “MTR-2” was approved, providing for the determination of treatment plant access tariffs, but only for plants identified as “minimum plants” in the context of area planning. The operators of these minimum plants will therefore have to prepare the Economic and Financial Plan for the period 2022-2025 in accordance with the recommendations of the above MTR-2.

As far as the publication of the four European directives is concerned, they provide for amendments to six European directives on waste, namely: 

  • Directive 2018/851/EU, amending the so-called mother directive on waste 2008/98/EC; 
  • Directive 2018/850/EU, amending the landfill directive 1999/31/EC; 
  • Directive 2018/852/EU, amending packaging directive 94/62/ EC;
  • Directive 2018/849/EU, amending the directive on end-of-life vehicles 2000/53/EC, the directive on batteries and storage 2006/66/EC and the directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment, the so-called WEEE 2012/19/EU.

In short, the primary new development that these measures bring to environmental legislation concerns the percentages of separate collection to be achieved in the coming years, in particular up to 2035 (though establishing intermediate steps from 2020 to 2030 and from 2030 to 2035). In particular: 

  • urban solid waste: the target is to recycle at least 65% by 2035, with intermediate stages of 55% by 2025 and 60% by 2030; 
  • packaging: the goal is to recycle at least 65% by 2025 and 70% by 2030; 
  • landfills: the objective is to limit the entry of waste into landfills to a maximum of 10% by 2035. To this end, Member States must endeavour to ensure that by 2030 all waste suitable for recovery or recycling — in particular municipal waste — is not landfilled, with the exception of waste for which landfilling is the best environmental option.

On the subject of landfills, the introduction of art. 15-ter to the 1999 directive established that the Commission shall adopt implementing acts to determine the method to be used to determine the permeability coefficient of landfills locally and throughout the area. And the introduction of art. 15-quater confers on the Commission the task of adopting implementing acts to develop a criterion for waste sampling (until the concrete enactment of this new method, Member States use the national systems currently in place): 

  • separate collection of household waste: important changes are foreseen for the separate collection of household waste, such as textile waste, organic waste and hazardous household waste, not always collected separately at this time; 
  • waste prevention measures: the directives explicitly provide that Member States must take a series of measures to prevent the production of waste upstream, such as domestic composting and the use of materials obtained from organic waste, to encourage the production and marketing of goods and components suitable for multiple use, and to provide financial incentives to encourage such virtuous behaviour.

These targets may be revised in 2024 (especially in view of the fact that they are considered excessively ambitious for some States that, for example, currently frequently use landfills). In this sense, the legislature has therefore provided that, recognising the significant differences in treatment between different States, it will be possible to grant an extension up to a maximum of 5 years for States that in 2013 prepared for reuse and recycled less than 20% of urban waste or landfilled more than 60% of urban waste).
In compliance with the above European Delegation Act, the following acts have been approved: Legislative Decree 116/2020 on waste and packaging, Legislative Decree 118/2020 on waste batteries and accumulators (RPA) and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), Legislative Decree 119/2020 on end-of-life vehicles and Legislative Decree 121/2020 on landfills.

Finally, the rewording of art. 6 of Directive 98/2008/EC on the cessation of the qualification of waste (End of Waste) deserves a brief comment. In particular, with the new amending resolution, the European law requires Member States to take appropriate measures to ensure that where a substance or article meets the requirements for End of Waste it cannot be classified as waste.

More specifically, having regard to the competence of the European Commission to define the general criteria for the uniform application of End of Waste conditions, it is established that if the latter does not do so for certain types of waste, Member States may establish detailed EoW criteria for certain types of waste that must take into account all the substance’s or object’s possible adverse effects on the environment and human health and meet the EoW requirements of the directive. Such decisions must be notified to the Commission by the Member State.
Moreover, the same resolution also provides that Member States may decide on a case-by-case basis or take appropriate measures to verify that certain wastes have ceased to be such under the conditions set out in the directive, where necessary reflecting the EU EoW criteria and taking into account limit values for pollutants and all possible adverse effects on the environment and human health.
Such decisions taken on a case-by-case basis need not be notified to the Commission.
Finally on the subject of EoW we can note the amendment approved on 06 June 2019 and included in the decree known as the Re-Open Building Sites Decree (Italian Law Decree 32/2019, converted with Italian Law no. 1248). In particular, the rule establishes that pending the adoption of one or more decrees containing the EoW criteria for specific types of waste, ordinary permits for waste recovery plants must be granted on the basis of the criteria indicated in the measures governing simplified waste recovery (Ministerial Decree 5 February 1998, Ministerial Decree 161/2002 and Ministerial Decree 269/2005) “for the parameters indicated therein, for the parameters relating to the type, origin and characteristics of waste, recovery activity and characteristics of what is obtained from these activities”. Ordinary permits must, on the other hand, identify the necessary conditions and requirements “regarding the quantities of waste admissible to the facility and to be subjected to recovery operations”.
The Ministry of the Environment (now the Ministry for the Ecological Transition) is authorised to issue specific guidelines “by decree not of a regulatory nature” for the uniform application of the regulations throughout the country.
Lastly, notable among subsequent events is Resolution No.68/2022/R/RIF of 22 February 2022 relating to the enhancement of the financial parameters underpinning the calculation of the costs of capital use in implementation of the waste tariff method (MTR-2), based on the TIWACC criteria, as per Authority Resolution 614/2021/R/com, for determining the tariffs for access to “minimal” end of cycle plants for the years 2022- 2025.

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